The Basildon firm chose the new kit because of its speed and need for fewer staff for handling. The firm upgraded its existing IBM 4060s.

"We used to do around 30,000 impressions an hour on the last web line," said managing director Phil Cherry. "We aim to up that to 40,000 and make ourselves around 25% more productive.

"With four-fifths of jobs submitted electronically, integrated systems are a key factor in managing a profitable printing operation."

The new gear works with four Xerox DocuTech 6180s and a DocuColor 2060 to roll off material such as cattle-passport forms for DEFRA, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

CIP, which employs 74, also produces over 80m pages a year in the form of journals for Derwent Thomson Scientific.

Cherry said that more investment for kit was due from Pims UK, which bought CIP this April. The former has a 40m turnover and CIP 6.5m.

Story by Jez Abbott